Sorry my entire site looks like crap. I've had to remove my header and background images, as well as my sidebar badges, thanks to Photobucket, who will get ZERO of my monies. Eventually, I'll deal with broken images in posts.

STARTING 4/8/17: Six Word Saturday is now being hosted by the lovely Debbie at Travel With Intent. If you aren't already following Debbie, please visit her blog for Six Word Saturday and her beautiful photos. I'll continue to participate from time to time but please go to Debbie's for the official posts.

If you aren't receiving email replies to your comments, please see this post.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Ugh, this week. Why is it always that the more I have to accomplish, the more likely I am to have a migraine?

Tonight, Joe and I fly to Florida to see his Auntie. She is the most awesome woman on the face of the planet and more of a mother to Joe than his own by far. Visiting Auntie is not a stressful trip. In fact, our primary purpose is to help set up her new laptop for her which means I'll be sitting around on my own laptop or reading most of the weekend. Awesome.

Except, first I have to get there. And for me, the stress of that begins long before we head to the airport.

Our trip is just long enough that we have to call in the cat sitter one day to make sure Tonya doesn't eat Rusty. This means the house needs to be cleaned. Not spotless but definitely picked up and vacuumed. This even applies to rooms that you'd think I can just close off because she won't need to go in them but I learned that lesson the hard way when we were four hours away from home and our fire alarm went off. We had to call her to check it out which resulted in her entering every room in our house. Horrifying.

Then there's the packing. Clothes, electronics, reading material, medication. What to bring? It will be warm there, but I'm cold here. Joe made me take out the sweatpants I had packed for pajamas and replace them with a pair of shorts. He also told me it would be ok to only take one sweater for the evenings and that I might want to consider some t-shirts or tanks for daytime instead of the sweatshirts and fleece tops. Shoes? I haven't even figured those out yet. And I really want to take my slanket.

So all of that comes before we even hit the airport. I stress the whole way. Parking, security, getting to the gate, waiting for the plane, boarding, takeoff, flight, landing, deplaning, finding the rental car, driving to Auntie's...

But if we can get me there in one piece, it should be a nice quiet trip. At least until it's time to come home again on Sunday night.

I'm handling the anxiety better than our last few trips but still having moments here and there. Mostly I'm frustrated that I've had migraines all week because that meant all of the housework had to be crammed into last night. But it's done which only leaves a few last minute items to take care of before we head to the airport this evening. Yay for Joe, as always, keeping me from shutting down.

Also, tidying up some loose ends here on the blog before I leave tonight (I'll be blogging on the trip, I go nowhere without my laptop!). I recently received a couple of awards that I haven't claimed yet.

Tiffany at Poetry and Hums gifted me with the Honest Scrap award. Since I've already participated in this one once, I'm going to ask instead that you please go visit her blog. I'll admit it was the Pooh bear in her profile that first caught my eye but I really enjoy her writing.

And then Ryan Ashley Scott, who I never know if I should be calling Ryan or Ryan Ashley or RAS, gave me the Hug Award:I wouldn't even know where to begin in choosing 10 people for this award but you all help me fill my boring days at work, which I greatly appreciate.

Ok, time to post this so I can go back to not stressing about the trip tonight. I'll find my rhythm again and starting posting at my regularly scheduled time again soon, I hope. Just bear with me a little longer! And sorry this turned out so long considering I had nothing to say!

I wish I could just make all this unnecessary stress go away for you. I get similarly stressed over silly things, whether I'm traveling or staying home. This is me right before my SIL came last week: "OMG, there are stains on the place mats and I don't have time to wash and dry them and I haven't vacuumed and dusted the entire house within the past couple of days and, OMG, the bathroom sink has been contaminated once more by cat hair!"

I try to remember that none of this really matters in the long run, that NOBODY cares (except me). What's the worse that can happen, I ask myself, and that usually helps me put things in perspective.

Sarah - how else am I supposed to keep Rusty warm? Tonya has that long hair but Rusty's just itty-bitty!

Snarky A - I hope so too. Otherwise, you'll all be reading about it tomorrow...

Juliet - isn't that the worst part? You KNOW it doesn't matter but you still can't quite let it go. At least with the house-cleaning/cat sitter situation, the worst that can happen already has. She's already seen the house at its worst.

Calming thoughts your way. I know it probably doesn't help, but my former employer (incidentally a travel agent) used to tell me, "there is nothing so horrible that it cannot be fixed." This has calmed me more than once. I mean really, if something goes wrong, will it TRULY matter a year from now? If not, let it go!

About Me

It's a blog. I'll probably write stuff in it.
Me, I'm married, no kids, two cats, one boring job. My life isn't that exciting so I like to complicate things with overthinking, health issues, and anxiety attacks. I also enjoy reading, writing, travel (if I could control the anxiety attacks), wine, hockey, and music. And long walks on the beach. And a sugar daddy.